The bumpy players v media road

Present cricket stars hitting out at former stalwartshellip now therersquos a bit of history to thatThe latest edition to this chapter is Virat Kohli getting back at the television commentators for bringing up his strikerate during the ongoing Indian Premier League followed by Sunil Gavaskar taking off on the broadcasters for going on about that piece of Kohli footage too oftenWersquove had many instances of players having bones to pick with commentators Before that there were a lot of cases of players having issues with what journalists wrote So print journalists were the original hitback targets although it wouldnrsquot be fair to say that the keyboardtappers were in the right all the timeAnd though it may not have been funny at the time of the occurrence it produced some level of mirth later on One of the most hilarious instances of playerreporter lsquoduelsrsquo was revealed by the late Suresh Saraiya an AIR commentator in Willow Tales a compilation of cricket anecdotes by that pleasant former commentator Fredun De Vitre During the Bombay v Rajasthan 196970 Ranji Trophy final Ashok Mankad dropped a sitter at slip Sitting in the Brabourne Stadium press box Saraiya exclaimed within earshot of a rookie reporter ldquoThatrsquos Mankadrsquos 100th dropped catch a new recordrdquo Mankadrsquos lsquorecord droprsquo meant to be a prank on the newcomer landed in the next morningrsquos newspaperBefore the start of the next dayrsquos proceedings Mankad was seen in the press box expressing his desire to meet the reporter who wrote about the lsquorecordrsquo and demanding a list of the remaining 99 dropped catchesMany years later in 1988 veteran journalist Rajan Bala penned a critical piece on the touring New Zealand team who were undertaking a challenging tour of India under captain John Wright In Bangalore the late Bala questioned why the Kiwis should be playing Test cricket in the first place On the day the story appeared a gentleman armed with the newspaper walked into the press enclosure and asked who Rajan Bala was Bala I hear went up to the man most excitedly only to discover that he was about to be tackled by the New Zealand team manager Ken Deas Bala was as knowledgeable as they come and though Deas wouldnrsquot have held back his anguish at the piece Bala wouldnrsquot have been short of justification for what he had writtenIn another New Zealandrelated story Sir Richard Hadlee devoted an entire chapter to his relationship with the media in his book Rhythm and SwingOn the 198788 tour of Australia Hadlee made a speech during a function at Renmark where the tourists played a game against South Australia Country He later learnt that Don Cameron one of the celebrated writers from the New Zealand press pack had filed a story back home which said Hadlee had criticised the work of Glenn Turner as manager of the Kiwis during the 1987 World Cup in India A flabbergasted Hadlee who didnrsquot come for the World Cup phoned Cameron to ask when did he even mention Turner in his speech The journalist told him that he couldnrsquot remember what he had writtenDoubtless Hadlee would have been cold towards Cameron henceforth Or probably terse like Sandeep Patil was with Delhibased journalist R Sriman on the 198283 tour of Pakistan according to the welltravelled journalist Kuldip Lal In Caught amp Toldmdasha book on anecdotes Patil and I put together in 2007 Kuldip Lal revealed that Patil was angry about something Sriman had written in the midst of his leg injury worries When Sriman asked Patil how his leg was the flamboyant batsman quipped ldquoHairyrdquoItrsquos not necessary that cricketers or cricket administrators have problems with the written word My Australian friend Mike Coward a highly respected journalist was at the receiving end of Dennis Lilleersquos wrath when he called the great fast bowler on a telephone number which Lillee shared with him only to use ldquoin a matter of life and deathrdquoLillee wrote in Over and Out ldquoMike used the number It wasnrsquot life or death and he received a Lillee burstrdquo He also wrote this ldquoCoward apart from being a mate of long standing is a journalist I really regard I think Coward is one of the most talented I have readrdquoI too have had my share of unpleasant reactions to my work In January 1998 the India lsquoArsquo team consisted of fast bowler N Madhukar the son of then BCCI vicepresident Venkat Rao There were questions about whether he should have made the team and I headed to the Cricket Club of India for a reaction from the late Raj Singh Dungarpur then the Board president I met him on the lawns of the club and he obliged me with his reaction defending the selection of the Andhra Pradesh administratorrsquos son Raj Singhrsquos view appeared the following day but it was not the lead story on the controversy When I landed in the office I was told that Raj Singh with whom I had interacted professionally for the first time was upset ldquoCall him nowrdquo I was told Raj Singh came on the line and expressed his disappointment with the piece I asked him if he thought I had misquoted him To my relief he said I had quoted him correctly but only a portion of his views was carried I explained to him that we were constrained by space ldquoIn that case donrsquot speak to insignificant people like merdquo he shot back I had nothing to say in response to the BCCI president that evening but we ended up enjoying a great professional and personal rapport in the years that followedRajbhai would have sat up and taken notice of Gavaskarrsquos recent reaction As a former chief selector he wouldnrsquot have completely rubbished the strikerate factor in Kohlirsquos batting Nor would he have appreciated Star Sports playing that clip ever so often during the dayHopefully this episode wonrsquot leave a bitter taste and one canrsquot rule out Gavaskar rejoicing like he did at ground level when Kohli hit that six off Haris Rauf which guaranteed India wouldnrsquot lose their T20 World Cup game v Pakistan at Melbourne in 2022middayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper